Colt McCoy Named 49ers No. 2 QB

Colt McCoy enjoyed his best preseason performance on Sunday against the Vikings, earning him a regular-season role.

The 49ers have their No. 2 at the No. 1 position.

Shortly after San Francisco’s 34-14 exhibition victory over the Minnesota Vikings, Jim Harbaugh announced that offseason addition Colt McCoy would spell Colin Kaepernick under center if need be this coming season.

This was in the wake of McCoy’s finest preseason effort in three tries. The ex-Cleveland Brown signal-caller completed 11 of his 15 pass attempts for 109 yards in two quarters of play; he replaced Kaepernick at the start of the second and was lifted for rookie B.J. Daniels one play into the fourth.

“I felt like I played a good ballgame tonight, much better than – I feel like I’ve done good things this preseason but I’ve also made some mistakes and I think that’s part of the growth within this system with a lot of volume,” McCoy said. “We were going against a good offense and we moved the ball well tonight.”

McCoy was the subject of reported trade rumors, which heated up in the hours leading up to Sunday’s nationally-televised game.

Of said talk, Harbaugh said, “We never talk about the things that appear on the Internet.”

McCoy said the reports were news to him. He did confirm that his agent and the team restructed his one-year contract salary on Saturday night. (The 49ers signed another free agent quarterback, Seneca Wallace, this week; Wallace played the final three snaps of the game, completing both of his pass attempts to fullback Jason Schepler for 27 yards total.)

For his part, McCoy acknowledged his adjustments to Harbaugh’s offensive system. He tossed two interceptions over the 49ers’ first two preseason games and had a third pass picked off on Sunday: Vikings linebacker Chad Greenway jumped in front of a lead-throw for wideout Quinton Patton.

“Stat-wise, it didn’t look very pretty, but I had confidence in that game,” McCoy said of his 3-for-6 night in Kansas City a week ago. “Overall understanding of the offense and in and out of the huddle – I have seen much improvement in week to week. Not everybody can see that, but my coaches and I really fight hard for that. It’s been a good week.

“It’s come slower to me. Whether that’s all the offenses I have been through cluttering together… I can’t really put my finger on it. But I can say that over this past week and this game, I have felt much better.”

Harbaugh noted McCoy’s tough luck, saying in jest that he leads the team’s quarterbacks in starting drives within his own 10-yard line. McCoy had two such unenviable field-position situations on Sunday. The latter ended on a Jewel Hampton touchdown run.

McCoy's good feelings started this week, which he called his best week of practice since the start of training camp. Harbaugh kept his QB in the loop as to where he stood in the race for No. 2 at his position – a race that until Sunday night had included Daniels, Wallace and Scott Tolzien, who didn't take a snap.

“We have talked all week long,” McCoy said. “We have figured each other out better.”